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The film industry is soon to descend upon the Venice Lido in Northern Italy for the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival, which is one of the world's most widely publicised events and certainly the most important film festival in terms of worldwide impact.
Organised by La Biennale di Venezia, the 2024 event takes place between 28th August - 7th September 2024 at Venice Lido, in the Venetian Lagoon.
The films are screened in world preview showings, meaning it’s often the first time they come under the watchful gaze of a demanding audience made up of professionals and film lovers.
These are our top picks vying for the prestigious Golden Lion.
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Production country: United States, United Kingdom, Hungary
Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Alessandro Nivola, Jonathan Hyde, and Guy Pearce.
Synopsis: The film chronicles 30 years in the life of László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust.
Leurs enfants après eux
Director: Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma
Production country: France
Starring: Paul Kircher, Angelina Woreth, Sayyid El Alami, Gilles Lellouche and Ludivine Sagnier
Synopsis: A coming-of-age story following three teenagers across four summers in a small deindustrialised town in the northeast of France between 1992 and 1999.
Maria
Director: Pablo Larraín
Production country: Italy, Germany
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Valeria Golino and Haluk Bilginer
Synopsis: Maria is an upcoming biographical drama film about opera singer Maria Callas, set during Callas' final years in the 1970s when she was living in Paris.
Stranger Eyes
Director: Yeo Siew Hua
Production country: Singapore, Taiwan, France, United States
Starring: Lee Kang-sheng and Wu Chien-ho
Synopsis: After young father Darren's daughter goes missing, he begins to receive video recordings of his personal life. He suspects that his neighbor Goh is the culprit and begins surveilling him in a hunt for answers.
Harvest
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari
Production country: United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, France, United States
Starring: Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling, Rosy McEwen, Arinzé Kene, Thalissa Teixeira and Frank Dillane
Synopsis: The film is set in England during the Middle Ages. In a time of economic turmoil local villagers scapegoat three strangers.
Kjærlighet
Director: Dag Johan Haugerud
Production country: Norway
Starring: Andrea Bræin Hovig and Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen
Synopsis: Healthcare workers Marianne and Tor meet on a ferry and strike up a conversation. After learning about his laissez-faire approach to love and sexual relationships, Marianne wonders if Tor's philosophy would work in her own life.
April
Director: Déa Kulumbegashvili
Production country: Georgia, France, Italy
Starring: Ia Sukhitashvili, Kakha Kintsurashvili and Merab Ninidze
Synopsis: Nina, an obstetrician in rural Georgia who aids patients seeking abortions despite legal prohibition, must defend her values and actions when she is accused of negligence and subject to investigation.
The Order
Director: Justin Kurzel
Production country: Canada
Starring: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, and Marc Maron.
Synopsis: In 1983, an Idaho-based FBI agent spots a pattern in recent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations and armoured car heists terrorising communities across the Pacific Northwest.
The Room Next Door
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Production country: Spain
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro and Alessandro Nivola
Synopsis: The plot deals with the rift between a very imperfect mother and war correspondent and her resentful daughter, as well as with the former's relationship with author Ingrid.
Joker: Folie à Deux
Director: Todd Phillips
Production country: United States
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener and Zazie Beetz
Synopsis: Two years after killing Murray Franklin on live television, Arthur Fleck, now a patient at Arkham State Hospital, falls in love with music therapist Harleen "Lee" Quinzel.
